Monday, January 30, 2012

This post is proof that eBay sometimes throws up some bargains if you're ready for them...

A couple of weeks ago I was watching a group of 5 x 1/20oz Gold Lunar Coins (Perth Mint Series 1) and a display case to house them. I decided not to bid, because I didn't want to only win a couple and miss out on the rest (or get caught up in a bidding war last minute for some)... not bidding was a big mistake. The coins went for bargain basement prices. I was expecting some last minute bidders and they never came.

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The coins went for between $91 and $103 per coin.

What's more is that 4 out of 5 of the above coins are in the top 5 rarest by number of sales, so they are the key dates for completing a set of this type. You can view the entire Perth Mint Gold Lunar Bullion Coin mintage here, but for convenience sake I've extracted the 1/20oz Gold coins and sorted them from lowest to highest sales below:

Year

Denomination

Description

Mintage

Sales

1997

$5

1/20oz Bullion Lunar Gold Ox Coin 1997

100,000

7,131

1996

$5

1/20oz Bullion Lunar Gold Mouse Coin 1996

100,000

7,405

1999

$5

1/20oz Bullion Lunar Gold Rabbit Coin 1999

100,000

9,642

2007

$5

1/20oz Bullion Lunar Gold Pig Coin 2007

100,000

10,308

1998

$5

1/20oz Bullion Lunar Gold Tiger Coin 1998

100,000

10,427

2006

$5

1/20oz Bullion Lunar Gold Dog Coin 2006

100,000

15,737

2004

$5

1/20oz Bullion Lunar Gold Monkey Coin 2004

100,000

15,898

2003

$5

1/20oz Bullion Lunar Gold Goat Coin 2003

100,000

17,892

2005

$5

1/20oz Bullion Lunar Gold Rooster Coin 2005

100,000

18,220

2001

$5

1/20oz Bullion Lunar Gold Snake Coin 2001

100,000

19,738

2002

$5

1/20oz Bullion Lunar Gold Horse Coin 2002

100,000

27,338

2000

$5

1/20oz Bullion Lunar Gold Dragon Coin 2000

100,000

29,325

The Ox is the rarest in this coin type, which is not unusual, the Ox often sells fewer coins than the other animals and has developed a larger premium in some cases due to this.

Some of the key dates that sold two weeks ago for around $100 have exchanged hands on Silver Stackers for as much as $140-180.

Even in eBay auctions that ended yesterday we can see some of these coins usually achieve a higher sale price, the Ox coin (lowest mintage of this type) sold for almost $60 more than the earlier auction and the Snake sold for $20 more:

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Just goes to show if you keep your eyes peeled and know what you are looking for you can score bargains on eBay. Too bad I missed out on this occasion.

Small fractional Gold Lunar coins (such as 1/20th and 1/10th oz Gold) could end up a popular choice for collectors as they shun the more expensive sets (e.g. 1/2, 1 oz Gold) for those who want a more reasonable entry price to complete the collection.